Assemblyman Rob Bonta of Alameda reversed course after many defectors of communism residing in his district sounded the alarm.

“Many expressed these concerns to me,” Bonta said in a statement yesterday. “Through my conversations with veterans and members of the Vietnamese American community, I heard compelling stories of how AB 22 caused real distress and hurt for proud and honorable people. For that, I am sorry.”

His bill, AB22, would have repealed part of state law enacted during the Red Scare of the 1940s and ’50s, when fear that communists were trying to infiltrate the U.S. government was rampant. The Cold War-era law made belonging to the Communist Party a fireable offense for public employees.

Had this bill passed, it would have eliminated a portion of existing law that makes affiliation with the Communist Party a fireable offense for California public employees. However, employees with this affiliation could still be fired if they belonged to groups that advocate the overthrowing the government by force or violence.

This is rather interesting, given how Democrats in Sacramento silenced state senator Janet Nguyen (R-Garden Grove) and threw her out of the Senate chamber after she delivered a speech criticizing former Sen. Tom Hayden’s activism–think ties to Jane Fonda–opposing the Vietnam War. (An investigation into the incident is currently underway.)

California has certainly gone off the deep end, but perhaps not all is lost there. Now if Sacramento could get its act together, that would be great.